Constable Facing Hearing In Vanderhoof Shooting

By 250 News

Prince George, B.C. - RCMP Constable Ryan Sherametta,  who shot  Kevin St. Arnaud to death in  Vanderhoof in December of 2004, is facing a  code of conduct  citation for making false statements.  The information follows a Code of Conduct investigation by the RCMP.  Sheremetta may also be facing a charge of perjury.

Constable Sherematta has been advised he has been suspended with pay following  the  intensive scrutiny of his testimony  at the Coroner’s inquest into the death of St. Arnaud.

Specifically,  there were  comments Sheremetta made under oath  in connection with his experience in dealing with weapons seizures.  The  release from the RCMP says:

"Though  the information was not directly related to the specific shooting incident, concerns were raised and the RCMP launched an internal and external Criminal Code  investigation into the allegations:

Sheremetta has been  suspended under the RCMP Act as a result of the following allegation:

That on or about the 23rd day of January 2007 at or near Vanderhof British Columbia, you did conduct yourself in a disgraceful manner that could bring discredit  on the Force by knowingly making false, misleading or inaccurate statement(s) while testifyuing at the Coroner’s Inquest into the death of Kevin St. Arnaud, to wit; your experience in seizing handguns from suspects during your time as a member  at Vanderhoof Detachment contrary to section 39(1) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act Regulations, 1988"

The release goes on to say that a Criminal Code investigation  was launched parallel to the internal investigation  and the findings have been forwarded to Crown Counsel.  Crown has had that file since  late November, but may not  move  on  laying charges until  a  new review of the whole case has been done.

Assistant Commissioner, Al Macintyre says  a senior officer with the Metro  Toronto Police  will  be brought in to review the entire file. "It will be a senior officer with experience in Internal affairs and  major crime. That office will look at the whole file, everything from top to bottom."   It is expected it will take  a month perhaps two  to  compete that review.  Macintyre says  Sheremetta  is off duty with pay, but   the process has been started  in Ottawa to see if  that can be  changed to "suspended without pay".  That decision could take a month or two.

The date for an adjudication  Board Hearing has not yet been set.

Macintyre  says he  is painfully aware  of the  difficult times  the RCMP find themselves in. "These are very troublng times for the Force.  I have  been on the Force for 36 years in four provinces.  There are three questions  the public should ask:

1. Am I safe?
2. Can I trust you?
3. Are you competant?

My answer is, yes, you are safe,  yes you can trust us, and yes we are competant.  We are a big Force, there are 9,000 of  us in B.C, and from time to time, things will go wrong,  but when that happens, we will do our best to correct it, and to move on."

It is likely the  Commission of Complaints  Against the RCMP will not complete its  review on the  case until the Metro Police probe is complete.

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